Looking at Buildings


This is document 'Classicism without Columns', within the 'Styles & Traditions' section of the website. 

Classicism without Columns

Felbrigg Hall
London, Bedford Square

Strictly speaking, every columnGlossary Term should have its own entablatureGlossary Term, but the reverse is not the case: many buildings have full classicalGlossary Term entablatures but no columns or pilasters supporting them. These buildings are known as astylarGlossary Term, that is without columns.

Most ordinary GeorgianGlossary Term house fronts belong in this category, though often the entablatures and openings are very plain, and the classicalGlossary Term spirit of the whole is limited to the general proportions of the storeys.

The Cenotaph

Certain 20th-century buildings can be described as 'stripped classicalGlossary Term.' In these the details and ornaments of the ordersGlossary Term have disappeared, but the proportions still evoke the classicalGlossary Term tradition, and very simplified cornices and pilasters or square piers may also be used.

London, No. 69 Fenchurch Street

From the 1980s, Postmodern architecture revived many features of classicalGlossary Term architecture, often in a self-conscious or even joking way. Rather than follow the old forms exactly, Postmodern classicalGlossary Term architecture tends to use simplified paraphrases: cylindrical columns with blocks for capitals, sloping or convex cornices, and coloured or patterned claddingGlossary Term instead of traditional materials.